In a recent conversation with Beverly Falk, the topic of education and literacy came up, as it so often does, when we have telephone conversations. Beverly told me about an article that she wrote with Gil Schmerler.
I asked Beverly to email the article to me and after reading it I realized. how very important it is to share with others. . I’d like to follow up by writing, in another post, about grades K-2, what I think literacy instruction should look like in those grades and what I believe to be the priorities for children 5-7. For now, I hope you can read and share this wonderful article with teachers, parents, school administrators and all friends who are interested, or who should be interested, in children being taught literacy the way they naturally learn.
In Defense of Teaching the Way Children Learn
by Beverly Falk, Ed.D., Professor and Director Emerita, Graduate Programs in Early Childhood Education, The City College of New York/The City University of New York Gil Schmerler, Ed.D., former Director, Leadership for Educational Change, Bank Street College of Education
Abstract: This “back-talk” piece challenges current interpretations and practices of “the science of reading” and the ways in which mandated, scripted curricula, based on the misleading interpretations, are being used. It argues for a more comprehensive view of what it takes to become a reader than the phonics-supreme view currently dominating schools, citing scientific research. It also argues for pedagogies that allow teachers to use their professional knowledge to teach in the ways that children.
The “reading wars,” which dominated educational debate throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, seem to have ended… and with incredible speed. Across the country, schools seem to have accepted an interpretation of the “science of reading” as a phonics-centric method of instruction. Clearly, to ideological proponents and much of the public, the lack of sustained phonics instruction is seen to have been at fault for what Americans perceive as a dramatic loss in reading skills over recent decades.
It’s harder to say how our education establishment reached such a dramatic, definitive conclusion. The covid pandemic, a wave of corporate mergers (leading in this case to a few powerful textbook and curriculum companies), the domination of social media as a communications source, and, maybe, a generally more rightward drift in our national politics, may all have contributed. A 2022 popular podcast by a journalist who interviewed parents concerned about their children’s progress during the pandemic, , convinced millions that the “balanced literacy” increasingly practiced by teachers of reading was all wrong and failing our students.
But who, exactly, has been “sold a story”?
True, early in the reading reform movement, there were those who reacted against past rote skill/drill instruction in reading and did not focus enough on phonics and other sound/symbol skills. But advances in neuroscience demonstrated what effective reading teachers had always included in their instruction – that knowledge of phonics (sound/symbol connection) and phonemic awareness (sound/hearing connections) are critical to literacy development. These enhanced understandings from neuroscience also documented other critical components of how learners become readers that are currently receiving short shrift. These were noted as early as 1999 in a National Research Council report, researched and written by many of the world’s most renowned literacy experts who unequivocally stated that the “science of reading” should not be “either/or” (phonics vs. other skills) but “both/and” (phonics, phonemic awareness, AND comprehension, vocabulary, interest, structure of written language, spelling, and lots of opportunities to read).
And while the increase in recently-released test scores for students in New York City are leading people to believe the increased emphasis on phonics is responsible for the change, as educators who have spent our lives working in schools, we are concerned about the way the “science of reading” is being misinterpreted as an overwhelming focus on only one part of the literacy learning process – isolated drill of phonics and phonemic awareness – to the exclusion of the full range of holistic reading skills. We are equally concerned about the way that districts are mandating this phonics-dominated curricula and scripted lessons. Teachers are being required to have “fidelity to the curriculum” rather than fidelity to knowledge of their learners and how they learn.
The companies producing these curricula are effectively taking over the teaching in schools. Their textbooks and curricula are costing millions of dollars that could otherwise be spent on professional development and other resources. But the most profound damage of all this, in our opinion, is that these curriculum mandates and pre-fabricated scripts are robbing educators of their professional judgment. Scripted mandated curricula do not allow teachers to attend to the learners in front of them. They prevent teachers from doing the essence of teaching: using knowledge of human development to guide teaching and the development – or at least use – of curriculum. They do not honor what neuroscience points to: the importance of educators making connections with learners’ understandings and being responsive to learners’ interests and cultural/linguistic backgrounds in order to genuinely support their learning.
Many teachers are decrying the negative changes they have had to make to their teaching as a result of these curricula: how these mandates require them to spend inordinately long blocks of time on rote skill/drill, which results in the loss of active, meaningful learning opportunities that engage children’s interests; how the required texts (sometimes only parts of texts are provided) are not interesting or culturally/linguistically responsive. One teacher we interviewed expressed the concerns of many: “There is a clear change in my teaching and it is not for the better. I no longer can teach the way children learn. The joy of teaching is fading away – for me and for the children as well.”
New York City will have a new mayor and new schools chancellor in the coming school year, and many other municipalities are facing similar changes. This may be the right moment for thoughtful people responsible for schools around the country to take stock of the full range of research about how learners learn and how children move into and become expert at literacy; to honor educators’ knowledge and abilities to know and support their students; and to provide the comprehensive and rightly-deserved support, care and respect for the children, families, and communities served by our schools.
. My husband, Simon Dinnerstein, is an artist. who,since the start of the pandemic, has been working on a huge painting that literally inhabits the world of childhood. My grandson,Adrian Greensmith, who is now almost twenty-four, sits in a cardboard box in the center. How many of us have seen young children turn cardboard boxes into spaceships or castles. He seems to be in a boat, patiently waiting, in the midst of the swirls of his upcoming journey. The painting juxtaposes all different times, people, photos – all that could be in the lives of all children. Where is he going? That is, of course, yet to be known
So here is my 82 year old husband, reaching backwards and forward in time, as he works,, every day, on this wondrous and mysterious “Voyage.”
One day, Andrew Reiss, an artist friend, visited the studio to see the painting in progress. He seemed transfixed by the many images and began to recite, from memory, this poem by Baudelaire :
For the child, in love with globe, and stamps, the universe equals his vast appetite. Ah! How great the world is in the light of the lamps! In the eyes of memory, how small and slight! One morning we set out, minds filled with fire, travel, following the rhythm of the seas, hearts swollen with resentment, and bitter desire, soothing, in the finite waves, our infinities: Some happy to leave a land of infamies, some the horrors of childhood, others whose doom, is to drown in a woman’s eyes, their astrologies the tyrannous Circe’s dangerous perfumes. In order not to become wild beasts, they stun themselves, with space and light, and skies of fire: The ice that stings them, and the scorching sun, slowly erase the marks of their desire. But the true voyagers are those who leave only to move: hearts like balloons, as light, they never swerve from their destinies, and, without knowing why, say, always: ‘Flight!’ Those whose desires take on cloud-likenesses, who dream of vast sensualities, the same way a conscript dreams of the guns, shifting vaguenesses, that the human spirit cannot name.
“Play is far older than humans. It’s so familiar to us, so deeply ingrained in the matrix of our childhood, that we take it for granted….Play is widespread among animals because it invites problem-solving, allowing a creature to test its limits and develop strategies. …We may think of play as optional, a casual activity. But play is fundamental to evolution. Without play, humans and many other animals would perish.”
Diane Ackerman, Deep Play
It was 1968 when I taught my first kindergarten class and my last kindergarten class was in 2000. There were, to be sure, many changes over the years. Half-day kindergarten became full day kindergarten. Rest time, when children had time to either relax or sleep on mats was no longer included in the day. Gradually, year by year, more and more time was spent on “academics” – reading, writing, phonics, math programs – and less time was left for play, both indoors and outdoors. Screen time…SmartBoards https://www.gflesch.com/blog/what-is-a-smart-board for group lessons and tablets https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/tablet-PC for individual use…have been regular tools in classrooms.Singing, learning nursery rhymes, playing circle games like ‘Bluebird, Bluebird’ and “Duck, Duck, goose”are memories of the past. Kindergarten became serious business. Teachers, rather than observing children at play, are now expected to assess children’s academic progress. Precious time that could be spent encouraging children to act out a favorite story , or learning to sing a new song is taken up with filling out ‘spreadsheets’ showing children’s academic progress to be shared with supervisors and filed in district offices. What happens to these spreadsheets afterwards?
Children are children. In 2025, they might have a veneer of sophistication that they didn’t have in 1968, but kindergarteners still love, and need, to play, explore, question, sing, paint, and draw.
I hope that there will be changes and that the needs of children will once again be the focus of kindergarten rather than the demands of bureaucrats. However, the reality that we face, for the time being, is that big publishers are making a fortune. on producing materials for mandated programs.
I propose that parents need not worry about preparing children for kindergarten. It is the job of kindergarten teachers to prepare their kindergartens for the children who come to spend a year with them.https://www.investigatingchoicetime.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=86&action=edit Parents need to INSIST that the curriculum meets the needs of their children. The more that parents become knowledgeable about the needs of kindergarten children and speak up in their schools, the greater is the possibility for change.Parents have strong, important voices and need to be advocates for their children. A good start is to get a copy of Yardsticks : Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14, A Resource for Parents and Teachers. https://www.amazon.com/Yardsticks-Children-Classroom-Ages-4-14. Chip Wood’s book helps parents and teachers have a clear understanding of children’s behavior and development at different ages. It’s presented in a way that is easily understandable. I’ve often been amazed at how on point he is in describing the children in my class!
Kindergarten teachers face a more difficult situation, particularly when they are handed inappropriate scripted curriculums .They are often checked on by administration or representatives from the district office to be sure that they are following the entire program. However, there’s always opportunities to ‘stray’ and to set a spark in your room. Pam Roque, a kindergarten teacher in lower Manhattan, brought snails into her classroom and set up a science center. The children were fascinated and so, after a while, she added slugs to the tank to further provoke the children’s curiosity.
Kindergarten teacher Fanny Roman brought a hermit crab to class. The children became so excited and a mini-inquiry began.As these two teachers did in their classrooms, you too can look for the cracks and find opportunities or moments to bring joy into your teaching. In addition, you can advocate for your children at grade meetings. Refer to studies (there are many!) that discuss the importance of play. Sing! Don’t sing with songs projected from a smart board. Sing with children personally and from your heart
Keep thinking of and prioritizing the needs of five year old children.
Finally, parents and teachers, which of these classrooms do you want for your children?
This kindergarten class
or this one?
Let your voices be heard! Speak up for the kindergarten class that your children deserve.
Schools should be safe a space for all children; where they can feel pride for who they are while learning about and celebrating those who are not like them. As a Queer 4th grade teacher in Brooklyn, NY who spearheads the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at our school, this has become such an important part of why I still love to teach even after 22 years. .
I grew up in Connecticut in the 1970s and 80s, very much in a culture of fear, misinformation, and bias with regards to the Queer community. I never read a single book with a queer character, never learned about Queer people or events in history, music, art, the sciences, etc., and never had an “out” teacher. My health classes were heteronormative, as were all of the social norms among my peers. The only time being Queer came up was as a way to bully or with regards to AIDS (with an undertone of how the community deserved to suffer due to their sinful ways). No pride whatsoever, only shame.
This was addressed to some degree in the decades that followed with an “It gets better” campaign where (mostly Queer) celebrities were filmed telling Queer kids that it gets better when they become adults. As an adult, I was moved by this, particularly when a sitting President, Barrack Obama, participated. Since Queer oppression has similarities to all forms of oppression, his message, with a dual focus on anti-black racism, was powerful. And it was worlds away from one of the Presidents of my youth, Ronald Reagan, who famously never once mentioned the Queer community despite the AIDS crisis at the time. “It gets better” assured youth that pride would come, if they could just hold on through the culture of shame in school.
I wonder if you can imagine how moved I was this year when my elementary school marched in the 28th Brooklyn Pride parade for the very first time. Though we are a small school with only 200 students, over 50 people marched – students, families, teachers, the guidance counselor, and the school secretary. Most of the people who marched identify as allies, who, as mentioned above, wish to celebrate those not like them. The DEI resources shared in K-5 classes during Pride Month, had fostered a sense of love and respect for Queer culture, and they wanted to join in the celebration.
While marching down a very crowded 5th Ave in the neighborhood of Park Slope I looked into the 5-people-deep spectators and saw people roughly my age or older weeping. Like me, they could not believe that, at least in our school, there was no need for an “It gets better” campaign. It is “better” now. The journey of Queer liberation at our school turned the corner from being a topic only addressed if we witnessed bullying to something we intentionally integrated into our academic day. These efforts serve as both a window into (for allies) and a mirror of (for those who are Queer) the Queer identity. Pride had arrived.
As I continue to reflect on all of this, I am aware that this journey of liberation has a long way to go to affect the current statistic from the Trevor Project – that a member of the Queer community in the United States attempts suicide once every 45 seconds. I know that our school is not the norm, even here in Brooklyn, and that our own journey is far from complete. The degree to which we keep making progress is also the degree to which we stop causing harm. Pride must win to defeat shame.
My scars from being raised in a toxic culture continue to heal, and this year’s Pride Parade was one of the best medicines. Never has my calling to be a teacher been as compelling as it is now. Proud Queer educators like myself obviously have a lot of interest in leading this work, though I hope allies can see their role too. Safe schools require all of us to march together on this journey.
Please say it with me. Happy pride!
*Doug Hecklinger has been teaching in New York City for 22 years, first at P.S. 159 in East New York, and for the last 10 years at P.S. 295 in Park Slope. He has taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. He is a member of the Proud Educators group promoting inclusive schools, and is “out” as Queer in his school community, including to his students. He and his husband also live in Park Slope with their nearly 12 years old daughter and dog, Lawrence.
Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s what scientists do every day. If a scientist already knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t be discovering anything, because they already knew what they were doing. (Neil de Grasse Tyson)
I’ve been hearing so many reports about Kindergarten teachers not being allowed to include Choice Time in their programs or only giving children 20 minutes at the end of the day for play. This is so upsetting and harmful to young children. Because of this lack of opportunities for play, I’m taking a new look at and reviewing an older blog entry. Hopefully teachers and parents will read what I write and share it with their administrators.
Choice Time is not a time to give children tasks. So then, what, in my opinion, is Choice Time?
It is a wonderful opportunity for children to direct their own play and therefore, their own learning. The teacher, of course, plays an important role by carefully setting up centers with materials that provoke investigations. However, it is the child who discovers and determines ways of using the materials.
Consider the block center. If you watch a group of children building towers, spaceships, and castles in the block center, you will see them developing in so many important ways—physically, mentally, and socially. First, children building with blocks are physically active. Often, children are in almost constant motion—getting blocks, arranging blocks, and playing with the castle while it’s being constructed and after it’s built. They are also mentally engaged as they propose and revise plans, “What if we put the big blocks around our spaceship to protect it?,” and also as they reflect on what is and isn’t working, “See, the big blocks are working. The small blocks aren’t falling!” And like all children who build together with blocks, there are interpersonal challenges and opportunities for learning to collaborate and negotiate with others.
Children who are building with blocks are also developing many conceptual, disciplinary understandings related to their play. They experiment with balance, stability, and aesthetic appreciation as they arrange blocks on top of or next to one another. They practice mathematical and scientific thinking as they classify blocks according to size, weight, and shape or as they search for just the right piece to add to a structure. They become familiar with geometric shapes such as triangles, arcs, rectangles, and squares. And they practice communication skills as they collaborate and negotiate while building a structure together.
Many classes seem to short-change the science center, creating only an attractive display. It’s my experience that children find fascinating ways of exploring if it’s set up and introduced well. When planning the science center, it’s helpful to think about your students and the experiences they will most likely bring with them to school. This is important because if children can access prior knowledge, it will help them feel successful in their first explorations in the center. Since geographic location is the one thing all your students will have in common, it’s a good place to start planning. A seashell exploration made sense for one particular group of students who lived so close to the ocean. However shells are probably not the best choice for children in the middle of rural Iowa. A soil or rock exploration might possibly be a better fit in such a location.
For this center, materials can be those that are easy to obtain, inexpensive, and open-ended enough for children to be innovative in their explorations. It’s also important that children be able to work with the materials both independently and safely. If the teacher has to hover too close as children use the center, they will come to be dependant and less likely to guide their own investigations. While every group of children is different, here are some tried and true materials and topics that reflect the interests and curiosity of most children: seashells, snails, and hermit crabs; magnets; seeds and pods; leaves, branches, tree pods; plants and flowers; water; color; sand, pebbles, and rocks; life cycles (butterflies; frogs; mealworms); baby chicks in an incubator; bird feathers, bones and nests; shadows; insects; snails.
Without a doubt, after just a few weeks in school, teachers will have all kinds of ideas for science explorations that make sense for their particular group of children and their interests. The possibilities are really endless and very often new ideas arise from children’s questions. For example, in April of 2010, one my first-grade students brought in a newspaper article about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As we discussed the article, the children were both disturbed and fascinated by the challenge of cleaning up the water. We decided to become oil-clean-up scientists and conduct experiments in the science center. We filled pans with water and dripped varying amounts of oil into them, then tried to clean the oil from the water using a variety of materials. The most successful straining implement turned out to be a bird’s feather, which led us to wonder what happened to the ducks in the water. Did the oil stick to their feathers as it stuck to the feather in our experiment? This question led to more questions and research on the effects of oil spills on the natural environment. In the end, a group of children conveyed what they’d learned in a letter to the oil company responsible for the spill!
When interest in a center wanes, it opens up a few possibilities. A new material might be added to the center, provoking interest. If shells are at the science center, a tank with hermit crabs or snails can be introduced.
It might be time to retire that center,at least for the time being. Perhaps the teacher could present the children with observations of how she noticed a lack of interest in the center. The children might come up with ideas for “remodeling” that area to make it more interesting. They could brainstorm for different ways that the center could be used; what might take place at that activity? Perhaps at a Read-Along center the children might suggest having drawing paper so that they could draw pictures that the story brought to mind. The teacher might suggest adding an iphone or tape recorder to the center so that children could tell and record stories for other children to hear. On the other hand, they might agree that the center is no longer interesting to them and suggest putting it away.
One year when my kindergarten class was in the midst of a long and exciting study of bridges, I noticed that the bridge constructions were becoming more and more intricate, taking up all of the space in the block center.
Abutting this area was our very under-utilized dramatic play center. I thought that it might make sense to close up the dramatic play area and extend the block center. I was so sure that the children would appreciate this change since they practically never went into dramatic play during this period. I shared my thoughts with the class and to my great surprise there was an uproar of dissent. Absolutely nobody wanted me to take away what we called “the pretend center.” One child suggested that we make it a smaller pretend center. I questioned whether there would be anything that they could do in a small pretend center but the children thought that it could be a little store. After two days of discussions, it was decided that we would open up a little bookstore and that we could make the block area a little bit bigger. Unexpectedly, we were now beginning a mini-inquiry study of bookstores!
We visited a bookstore in the neighborhood, interviewed the workers and the bookstore owner, sketched and discussed the arrangement of the books in the store and stood outside the store observing, drawing and photographing the way the store looked from the street. A few weeks were spent transforming the dramatic play area into a bookstore. Because it was a little bookstore, children who chose the writing center were busy writing little books. Our classroom library was searched for little books to add to the store collection. Children built an awning, made signs, constructed a cash register and made paper money, and wrote labels for the shelves, organizing the little books by subjects, just as they saw when they visited the neighborhood bookstore. This exciting curricula detour lasted a few weeks and shows what can happen when children are challenged to consider and solve a classroom problem. The students were taking ownership of an important classroom issue.
Choice Time is part of kindergarten because it is essential that children have opportunities to play, investigate, explore, socialize, collaborate, think out of the box, play with a box, create…. have fun!
If you would consider taking advice from a long-time kindergarten teacher who appears, in these days,to be a dinosaur, here’ are my thoughts on what to look for in a kindergarten class.
To begin with, I’d like to scratch out all of the suggestions and ideas for getting your child ready for kindergarten. It is better to concentrate on , “How is this school, and this teacher, getting the kindergarten class and program ready for my child?”
So then we have the job of checking to see if the kindergarten is ready for the child. Perhaps begin by thinking of some goals that you might have and then look carefully at how the room is set up and how the day is planned to see if they are aligned with your expectations.
This is a fairly long list. I’d say that it is for a parent’s ongoing assessment of what happens in their child’s kindergarten class over the course of the school year.
I might begin by asking myself if this is a place where my child can develop and build self- esteem. What, in this room, will support this?
Does this teacher value curiosity and divergent thinking? How does the classroom environment reflect these values? Are there many areas in the room that are set up for open-ended explorations, where children can explore personal projects and ideas or do centers have “tasks” that stunt creativity and investigations?
Does the daily schedule place a primary value on indoor and outdoor play, discussions, and singing? Today, most public kindergartens have time for reading, writing, math, and phonics in their programs. However, in the rush to meet standards and to address new curriculums, this most important part of kindergarten often gets either left behind or scaled down inappropriately. I taught the same children for two years, kindergarten and then first grade. We called this “looping” with a class. I could see how well the children did academically in first grade when they had a kindergarten year that was filled with Choice Time, Inquiry projects, lots of books read aloud, interesting group discussions and plenty of singing.
Remember, this is KINDERGARTEN, Kinder meaning children – the children’s garden!
Is this room reflective of the teacher as a facilitator rather than as the major source of direct instructions? Are tables and chairs organized so that children are always facing the teacher or are they incorporated into centers scattered about the classroom?
(Getting a room set up before the schoolyear begins.
Does the classroom library represent a diverse population where all children can find books that speak to their ethnicity, culture and gender identification? Can my child find new books but also wonderful children’s classics. Are the books enticingly displayed and easily accessed by children?
Do you see any signs of inquiry projects that are built upon children’s questions? Is the progression of the project displayed so that the visual documentation focuses on the explorations rather than only on finished projects?
Computers and technology are a reality. However, it’s important that they aren’t used asgames and technological work books. Children can use computers, just as they use books, to figure out problems, to research, to communicate with pen pals from other classes and locations and for a variety of creative activities.
What is the relationship between the teacher and the parent or caregiver? Is it a relationship of mutual support and advocacy? Are parents welcomed into the classroom? How does the teacher communicate with families? Does the teacher ask you to begin the year by writing about your child, your hopes for your child and your child’s special interests and talents?
It seems to me that we are often forgetting that this kindergarten year is not preparation for the next year of school. Kindergarten should be a joyful, intellectually inspiring and excitingly fun-filled year all of its own.
Let’s not rush children out of childhood. It only comes once. Let’s use this kindergarten year to respectfully honor the importance and specialness of childhood. There’s plenty of time for scholars in the future!
“We cannot understand [Fascism], but we can and must understand from where it springs, and we must be on our guard…because what happened can happen again…For this reason, it is everyone’s duty to reflect on what happened.” ―Primo Levi
What happens when bad politics, homophobia and xenophobia undermine the best intentions for children? Unfortunately, I saw this happen in a tiny village in upstate New York.
Let me backtrack a few years. In 2018 I was invited by Larry Leaven to do professional development in the Hong Kong Dalton School. At the time, Larry was the director of the school. It was a fascinating week. Most exciting for me was spending time in deep conversations with an educational leader who truly cared about children and about supporting their curiosity, creativity and their participation in a caring community. Larry and I talked and talked. We talked after we visited classrooms, during lunch and in the evening over dinner. It was an incredibly stimulating week for me.
When Larry returned to work in the US, he accepted the job as superintendent of schools in Florida, NY. It’s a small village, mainly known for black earth and onions. The school district only consisted of a high school,a middle school and an elementary school. After he initially visited classes at the elementary school, Larry was certain that I could be a good learning support for the early childhood teachers. He wanted me to spend a week each month at the Golden Hill Elementary School and to introduce Choice Time and inquiry-based learning to the kindergartens, first grades and second grades. Truthfully, I was not keen on traveling upstate and staying in a hotel overnight. However, I could feel Larry’s passion for the possibilities of developing an inquiry-based, joyful learning environment and couldn’t resist.
This was during the heart of the pandemic and it certainly wasn’t the best time for teachers. What I saw when I first visited the school were very bare rooms, no evidence of student work on the walls, tables for children far apart. The principal seemed obsessed with walking around the school with a yardstick, measuring the distances between desks and yet she proudly told me that she was a healthy woman and didn’t need to get vaccinated!
It was, at first, unclear where to begin. However, I was introduced to a lovely, bright and interested teacher who was not working in a classroom that year. She was interested in collaborating with me and we walked around the school and discovered a room that was not being used as a classroom. It could be a perfect set-up for a Choice Time Lab room. Larry approved and gave us a budget for setting it up. Linda Shute, the teacher who would now be the Choice Time facilitator, and I spent a lot of time planning and reflecting. We did this in person when I came to the school for my monthly visit, on Zoom and via texts and emails. We talked about what might take place in the Choice Time room how to set up the room and mainly how to let the children understand that this was their place for play and investigation.
At the same time I worked with the teachers, individually and mainly during grade meetings. We made plans for tweaking their thematic studies so that they could become more inquiry-based, giving children more agency in how the investigations would develop. I realized that the teachers were trying out something quite unfamiliar to them. I was impressed with how they were willing to try out a new way of teaching and also how they brought their own ideas and knowledge of the community and natural environment into their work.
Supported with my guidance and encouragement, and Larry’s enthusiasm for our project, Linda turned a dismal, empty room into a vibrant space where children could happily play, socialize and investigate.The room as we first found it.
Getting the room set up for children.
Children covered the locker doors with their self-portraits. This was their room!
Very soon, the room bustled with children’s explorations.
Now, to update you on what happened in this sleepy hamlet of Florida, New York after Larry Leaven was there for a few months, I’ll share an article from an April 13, 2023 edition of the Hudson Valley News.
FLORIDA, N.Y. — Tracy Stroh was thrilled when she learned that Larry Leaven was going to be the new superintendent in this tiny Orange County school district.
Stroh, a longtime resident of the village of Florida, had two kids in district schools, and a family member who knew Leaven in Buffalo, where he had previously worked, had told her fantastic things about him. A chance meeting shortly before he was to start work in August 2021 was encouraging — she was relieved as Leaven told her about his positive reception from the school board and faculty.
Still, she had some concerns.
“I did feel a quiet, deep-down sense of worry that the political climate here wouldn’t be kind to him because he happens to be a gay man, in a same-sex marriage, something he never felt the need to keep hidden, nor should he, nor should anyone, anywhere,” Stroh wrote on her blog.
A little over a year later, her worst fears had come to pass. Last November, Leaven resigned as superintendent in the face of consistent harassment from a small but vocal group of parents and community members, several associated with the right-wing organization Moms for Liberty.
Nearly six months on, questions linger about the circumstances of his departure. Leaven’s supporters have argued that he was effectively forced out by the school board, particularly by three new members — Rob Andrade (now the board’s president), Lori Gorcsos and Leslie Hill — who were elected last year on an anti-Leaven platform and whose campaigns were funded by individuals associated with Moms for Liberty. Supporters have continued to demand justice for the ex-superintendent, while also warning of the potential for this to happen in other school districts.
Leaven’s tenure in Florida
Leaven, who has more than 30 years of experience in education — including founding the Dalton School in Hong Kong — became superintendent in August 2021 of the Florida Union Free School District, which serves about 850 pre-K-12 students in the village of Florida and nearby towns of Goshen and Warwick.
Florida has a population of about 3,000 and is situated in Orange County’s famed Black Dirt Region, known for its rich soil and onion fields, about 60 miles northwest of New York City. Its political leanings trend conservative — the village went about 55-45 percent for Donald Trump in 2020.
While many in the Florida school district, like Stroh, welcomed Leaven, he almost immediately began to face sharp attacks from several community members by email, in local media like the Warwick Valley Dispatch and Warwick Watch, and probably most viciously, on Facebook.
Leaven has described these attacks as smears. “Every single decision that was made in the district was put out in these (Moms for Liberty-affiliated Facebook groups) and was twisted,” he said. “I can only fire back so much, and I’m not going to jump online with this stuff.”
In many ways, the attacks mirror those roiling school districts nationally: demands to ban books like “Gender Queer” (a graphic memoir by nonbinary author Maia Kobabe), accusations of anti-white and anti-Christian bias, and accusations that Leaven misused federal funds by giving professional development contracts to friends, an allegation he has called completely baseless.
Some critics accused Leaven of a lack of transparency or authoritarian tendencies, arguing that it was pushing educators out of the district, but Stroh said this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“(Leaven) was an extremely accessible person who would talk to anyone about anything,” she told the Times Union.
Stroh and others say it was Leaven’s sexuality and perceived liberalism that triggered the backlash. A record of the harassment shared with the Times Union — including screenshots, emails and media clips — shows that many of the online attacks were overtly homophobic.
One local resident wrote in a Facebook post: “If it were not for the Plandemic lockdowns, we would not know that a homosexual Marxist superintendent is perverting the minds and morals of the children in the Florida Union-Free School District …”
Another suggested in a post in a private Florida-focused Facebook group that Leaven had been banned from Hong Kong for sexually abusing children: “This is what happens when a Western ‘educator’ in Hong Kong who quickly garnered a reputation for extra attentiveness to small boys ‘suddenly’ flees Hong Kong and sidles into a small, rural school district …”
While these comments were among the most extreme, Leaven and his supporters say that the most persistent harassment came from several Florida parents who are associated with the Orange County chapter of the group Moms for Liberty.
Moms for Liberty was founded in Melbourne, Fla., in 2021. It describes itself as advocating for “parents’ rights” but is known nationally for spearheading right-wing attacks on public schools and LGBTQ teachers and students. It has received critical attention from prominent civil liberties organizations like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Southern Poverty Law Center — the latter has referred to it as a “radical parent group” — and it appears to have close links to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has publicly voiced support for the groupand appointed one of its co-founders to a governing board overseeing Disney World’s district.
The 2022 education board election
Leaven has emphasized good working relationships in the district, including in his resignation statement. But his supporters say the Florida school board election in May 2022 radically reshaped the context of his tenure.
In that election, three new members — Andrade, Gorcsos and Hill — were elected to the five-person board. The three ran together as “Team Florida” in a campaign obviously directed at Leaven.
One campaign flyer read: “The curriculum that has been forced on our public schools prioritizes lowering academic standards and indoctrinating our children through divisive programs like Common Core, Critical Race Theory, and Social Emotional Learning. … The parents of our community know what is best for our children and we oppose efforts to use our community’s public schools to push destructive social experiments on our children.”
Other material was even more explicit. A packet delivered to all voters in the district prior to the election included a flyer that read: “The parents and children need your support to elect new members that reflect a more conservative and traditional approach to education in our village. … For the past 12 months there has been an effort to radicalize and indoctrinate children in a culture that is both shocking and highly promiscuous.”
Attached was a flyer elaborating on the differences between “Traditional vs. Progressive Learning,” characterizing the two “types” as “Traditional (Classical)” and “Progressive / Marxist.”
(This is a flyer Leaven says was distributed at board meetings by a parent associated with Moms For Liberty)
The packet also included a column from the Warwick Valley Dispatch by “guest columnist Marilyn Young” (an asterisk noted that the newspaper does not necessarily endorse the commentary). It reads as an interview with a Florida resident named “Adam,” who claims to be leaving the district due to Leaven. “The School Board needs to get Leaven out of his position before he does permanent damage,” Adam tells Young. “I think the School Board should fire the Superintendent immediately.”
Andrade, Gorcsos and Hill did not respond to questions about their campaign or their relationship with Leaven. But an expenditure statement from the election, obtained by FOIL request, offers insight into their candidacies — while also raising questions.
Each of the three candidates lists the same six contributions to their campaign. All six donors are members of a private Moms for Liberty group on Facebook, to which the Times Union was able to obtain access.
The largest donor, Gayle Young, who donated $854 to each of the three candidates, is the same Marilyn Young who wrote the editorial the candidates included in their election packet, according to Leaven. Young also advocated prolifically on behalf of Team Florida in the same private group around the election last year.
Potentially complicating matters, the accuracy of campaign expenditure reports is not entirely clear. The three candidates — who filed virtually identical forms — each reported total expenses of $1,740. That number is the sum of their itemized expenses and itemized contributions, but it’s not clear how the contributions were spent or whether they were made to the candidates individually or “Team Florida” as a group.
Andrade, Gorcsos and Hill also did not respond to multiple inquiries about their campaign finances, and Young did not respond to a question about her contributions.
Leaven’s departure
Whatever their financing, the new board quickly came into conflict with Leaven. At a July 28, 2022, special meeting, the board took up a motion to terminate several professional development contracts that had been negotiated and signed by the previous board, which had been funded with American Rescue Plan money.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the purpose of the motion was “to remedy the more urgent health & safety issues the school district needs to address.” But Moms for Liberty members had repeatedly accused Leaven of impropriety with the contracts — which he has denied.
At the meeting, Leaven apparently disagreed with the board; according to the minutes, he said: “Removing programs will hurt students. … It is rare to have these funds available for programs. It is an opportunity to grow together.” (Leaven said he stood by his comments from the meeting; Andrade, Gorcsos and Hill did not reply to a question about why they terminated the contracts.)
The motion passed unanimously. After the meeting, Leaven only remained in the position for about four months, announcing his resignation on Nov. 10.
Despite a substantial turnout at a school board meeting the following week to protest his departure, Leaven’s exit was welcomed by the Orange County Moms for Liberty chapter. A Facebook post from Nov. 10 reads: “Take your pornographic indoctrination back where you came from. This is what happens when you mess with our children in OCNY.”
A screenshot from the Orange County Moms for Liberty Facebook page.
Orange County Moms for Liberty
A national issue?
Karen Svoboda, president of the Dutchess County-based nonprofit Defense of Democracy, an organization that advocates for inclusive public schools, sees what happened to Leaven as part of a pattern of conservative school boards targeting superintendents across the country. Her organization has compiled a list of several dozen similar cases, ranging from California to Florida to North Carolina to South Carolina and beyond.
In addition to circulating a petition demanding the resignation of the new Florida school board members, Svoboda has also helped publicize what Leaven’s departure is costing the district: $300,000, which includes the costs of securing Leaven’s position, his separation agreement, interim support in the role and retaining a consulting firm to conduct the search for a replacement, according to a February news release from Defense of Democracy. (As of publication, the school district had not confirmed these costs.)
Stroh is also disturbed by the expense. “It is an enormous cost in a small village,” she said.
Tensions around Leaven’s resignation erupted at the Feb. 16 board meeting, where Stroh was one of several community members who criticized the board and asked questions about the ongoing search for a new superintendent.
“You forced the resignation of an excellent superintendent with a stellar CV,” Stroh said. “You did this not only because he’s openly gay, but also because he was clear on his goal to help us create an equitable and safe environment for all students regardless of skin color or sexual orientation or gender identity or any other differences.”
Will Solomon is a freelance writer for the Times Union Hudson Valley. He has also written for Civil Eats, The American Prospect, Chronogram and other publications.
One wonders what wonderful opportunities for learning and growing the children and teachers will miss now that Larry Leaven is no longer at Golden Hill School?
I can’t believe that this toxic behavior only exists in Florida, New York and my heart hurts for all the harm that is being done to the children in our country, the educators responsible for teaching them and for the future of our democracy. It’s a terribly sad and ugly time and I think there must be something we can do to put a stop to these destructive behaviors.
What kind of world are we leaving for our children?
Last Saturday, I had an amazing “New York” day. My husband and I met my daughter and son-in-law at the Whitney Museum to see the inspirational exhibition of Edward Hopper’s work. After a few hours at the museum, we took a cross-town bus to Union Square where we got on a Q train to East 86 Street. We were hungry so we walked to Second Avenue and ate at a very old time New York diner. After stuffing ourselves until we could eat no more, we walked to the beautiful Carl Schurz Park and then took a walk on the promenade along the river. We ended the day by riding on the ferry from East 90th Street to Wall Street, with stops along the way. It was windy and cold on the top deck but we had the most amazing views of the city!
This wonderful day made me think about the joy of going on an inquiry journey with children. When I was teaching, my kindergarten class traveled all around New York as part of our bridge study. The next year, when the children were in First Grade ( I looped with my class), at the suggestion of the children, we investigated the various waterways that flowed under the bridges that we had visited and other waterways in and on the outskirts of the city. I’ll never forget those experiences and I wouldn’t be surprised if the children, now in their 30s, and their parents too, have memories from those excursions.
When I did consulting work with teachers, I encouraged them to embrace inquiry investigations in their classrooms. So many of these teachers did so and with truly wonderful results for the children and for themselves.
When we disembarked from the ferry we walked to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to get the train back to Brooklyn, but along the way we passed Saker Aviation and I was reminded of a wonderful Aviation investigation that Dana Roth did with her kindergarten class.
Here are some photos to take you along on the children’s investigation and on their journey.
THE NEXT TRIP WAS TO FLOYD BENNET FIELD.
I would love to hear about inquiry journeys that you and your classes have gone on!
You can click on “reply” at the top of this post to share YOUR classroom inquiry story.
Mary Pipher, the renowned American psychologist has warned that the protected place in space and time that we once called childhood has grown shorter.
Global School Play Day is a valiant effort to address this problem. Dr. Peter Gray, the author of Free to Learn, is a passionate spokesman for this important project.
RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF UNSTRUCTURED PLAY
February 4, 2015, was the first annual Global School Play Day for students in schools around the world. In year one, over 65,000 students participated! Since 2015, over a million students from 75 Nations were given the gift of unstructured play time. Can we reach 1,500,000 students in 2023? We think so!
In his TEDx lecture, Peter Gray clearly argues the case that today’s kids do not grow up playing and this has negatively impacted them in many ways. It’s time we return the gift of play to this generation.
How Does GSPD Work? First, please register your class/school to tell the world that you will be participating in GSPD 2023. If you do not teach, but would like to register your vote of support, please use this form. https://www.globalschoolplayday.com COVID-19 Information – GLOBAL SCHOOL PLAY DAY IS ON! COVID Safety – We are not doctors or scientists and do not have a deep understanding of the transmission of COVID. If you choose to participate we encourage you to assure your students’ safety first (As we know teachers do). We do however have some child-generated ideas. We would encourage you, since the day is about having children be self-directed, to have a play brainstorming session with your students where you lay out the safety guidelines. They, of course, will have amazing ideas!
1. EDUCATE – Teach your students, parents, colleagues, and administration about the benefits and necessity of play. Perhaps you could share Peter Gray’s TEDx video with them on the decline of play in our culture.
2. GET SOCIAL – Invite your colleagues to participate in Global School Play Day 2023 (February 1). Light the fire so others will catch the vision of returning the gift of unstructured play to this generation by talking about it on social media and in the teachers’ lounge. Write your own blog post encouraging your readers to join in on GSPD. Connect with the GSPD community by hashtagging your social media posts with #GSPD2023.
3. CALL FOR TOYS – Tell your class to bring anything they wish to play with to school on February 1, 2023 (Or as close to that date as you can). The only restrictions we ask: they must bring toys and these toys may NOT require batteries or electricity. No devices. Give them some ideas, since today’s kids rarely play and often own very few toys: board games, dolls, Legos, blocks, trucks, cars, racetracks, playing cards, empty cardboard boxes, markers, jigsaw puzzles, blankets (for forts), social games (charades, Pictionary, etc.) The only exception to the electronics rule would be a board game that has an electronic timer, an electronics play kit, or similar. How about taking your students out in the dirt or snow to dig, explore and get messy? You may want to show your students photos of past GSPD events to open their eyes to unfamiliar types of unstructured play.
4. PLAY! NO SCREENS – NO STRUCTURE – ALL DAY LONG on Global School Play Day, allow your students to spread their toys out around the room or take the kids outside and just PLAY!
Don’t organize anything for your students. Don’t tell them how to play with the toys/games. Don’t interfere with your students unless you see something that could get you fired or would physically hurt a child (this does not include something that may be physically uncomfortable for a child.) Don’t Leave Them Unsupervised as the day is unstructured by adults, but not unsupervised.
Other than taking a few pictures/videos, try to be invisible and let the kids play. This is a day of unstructured play, not playful teacher-led lessons. You will be amazed at what your kids come up with!
5. SHARE AND REFLECT – After the event, be sure to share your pictures, ideas, and reactions on social media (with parent consent) and hashtag them #GSPD2023. Perhaps you could add a post to your blog sharing about the experience. Ask your students to reflect on GSPD as well! Be sure to talk to your students and if possible, their parents, about the necessity of daily unstructured play. Your students will most surely ask if they can have play days more often. A great answer is, “Of course! Every day can be “play day” with your friends in your neighborhood after school. Keep playing as you did at school today, but just do it after school.”
What If? What if… you can’t run your Global School Play Day on the first Wednesday in Febraury? Do it on another day! The important thing is your kids and colleagues need to be free from thinking that play is a waste of time and begin to see the value in it.
What if… you don’t want to play ALL day? That’s fine. Make it the hour of play. Again, the point of Global School Play Day is to raise awareness and start discussions. We do encourage you though to take the plunge and dedicate a whole day to unstructured play. You will cause others to ask why you would give up a whole day “just for playing.”
What if… you want to do #GSPD2023 with your work, high school or college class? Go for it! Big kids need to play, too! Each year we have many participants from all levels of school!
What if… you want to jump in and play with your kids? Can adults play, too? That’s up to you, but the concept of GSPD is to get kids playing freely without adult intervention or structure. If you get down on the floor with your kids, be sure to let them just play. Resist the temptation to organize, discipline, and teach.
What if…you want to have your students use iPads or computers? Well, no one is going to tell you what to do, but this is NOT the concept of Global School Play Day. GSPD is a day to get away from staring at screens and instead of interacting with peers. [Note: the organizers of GSPD are NOT opposed to technology use for children.]
Global School Play Day is for public schools, private schools, and homeschool families! Let’s spread the word about the benefits of unstructured play. Together we can reverse the downward trend in childhood play that many nations have experienced since the 1950’s.
Every Tuesday evening I facilitate a zoom meeting of early childhood educators where we discuss a different chapter of my book, Choice Time: How to Deepen Learning Through Inquiry and Play, and we share our stories from our classrooms. It’s a wonderful group of educators consisting of teachers and administrators from across the United States, Newfoundland, Taipei, Taiwan and Bolivia, South America.
Last week Lauren Monaco, a wonderful kindergarten teacher, who works at P.S. 89, a NYC public school,shared a study that she did with her kindergarten class in an East Harlem charter school a few years ago. The children’s interest in trees fostered curiosity about squirrels and inspired them to advocate for their East Harlem community. This wonderful study began in September but, taking a variety of loops and turns, continued until the end of the school year.
At the beginning of the year, as a means of supporting children in developing a sense of classroom community, Lauren began a study of trees by creating tree inquiry groups. Each group “adopted” and named a tree that grew in the school community garden.
The children began drawing leaves from their trees, comparing how their leaves differed from the leaves of other inquiry group leaves. They looked at their leaves on a light box and examined the veins by looking at them through the hole of a “detail finder”, a piece of paper with a small circular window cut into it. They went outside and studied the bark of their tree.
Lauren introduced many books on the topic of trees and leaves to the class. A favorite book was Lois Ehlert’s Leaf Man. The illustrations inspired many leaf men being created as children engaged with natural materials at the art table during Choice Time.
Some of the children had an interest in creating a forest during Choice Time. To do this they had to experiment with paper so that they could figure out how to make trees that would stand up straight.
While the class was busy exploring trees and leaves, one child, Naima, began her own inquiry study. Naima became obsessed with figuring out how to lure squirrels to the classroom window. The children had noticed some squirrels in trees outside the third story classroom window. They wondered how they could get them closer so that the class could study them. Naima began to attach acorns to string and hang them outside the window, but couldn’t manage to lure the squirrels up to the third floor. Children are inventive and during Choice Time Naima began to create an elevator out of cardboard and tried to fit it through the narrow opening of the window. Naima’s interest in squirrels spread throughout the class.
Children developed a strong interest in squirrels, fascinated by how they moved and how they played. They read books and watched videos. They even found Youtube videos of mazes that were created for squirrels!
The interest in squirrels led to an interest in all the creatures that lived in or near the trees.
From a science catalog, Lauren purchased a “rotting log”. Children now were able to study the creatures that help decompose wood: snails, centipedes, pill bugs and beetles. This was a very new experience for these children who lived in the inner city!
The class took an exciting trip to the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. At writing workshop they shared their research with each other.
Lauren documented the direction of the study by posting the children’s work in the hallway. Rather than creating a “cute” display, an authentic story of the study, in the children’s own words, was created and the class shared their explorations with the school community.
The children’s focus turned to the question of how they could create houses for the squirrels and where they could build them. They looked at photos of houses for squirrels and they began drawing their own plans.
Home Depot donated wood pieces to the class and at Choice Time children began experimenting with constructing squirrel homes. First they sanded the wood and then they used duct tape and tape to hold pieces together.After they were satisfied with how their houses looked, they glued the pieces of wood together.
The children wondered where they could put their squirrel houses and decided that the school community garden, the site of their trees, would be the perfect spot.
At this same time the kindergarten classes in the school were doing an inquiry study of playgrounds. Because the school did not have a playground of its own, they visited other playgrounds in the neighborhood and also took a bus to Central Park to explore the playgrounds in the park. Of course an important part of their playground research included playing in the playgrounds!
“Let’s make a playground for our toy insects and our real snails!”
They began to create models for both squirrel homes and also play equipment.
An exciting day was spent painting the squirrel homes.
It was time to add more documentation.
Zoltan Sarda, the science coach, brought the children out to the garden and helped them get their constructions completed. It was particularly exciting for the children to use real, adult tools and to work on constructions in groups under Zoltan’s guidance
What began as Naima’s dream of creating an elevator for the squirrels became a reality! Look at the ecstatic expression on her face.
Now the focus shifted to the playground that the children wanted for themselves. Other schools had playgrounds and they wanted one too! They began to plan for the equipment that their playground would need.
They wrote a heartfelt letter to the Mayor and to other local politicians, explaining why they needed a playground. The letter received some interest at first. Then, unfortunately, the administration of the school changed and it went from being a child-centered program to one that focused on standardized test-taking and collecting data. Alas, as usual, it was the children who suffered. It was so clear (just look at their faces and the work that they were doing), that when children are engaged, interacting, playing and exploring in an environment that values joyful learning, they will flourish.
There was an exodus of progressive educators after the administration changed. Teachers were no longer free to teach to the child, but were expected to teach to the test and to a standardized curriculum.
This all makes it so obvious that we, the professionals and the community , must stand fast and push for the education that children deserve. Deborah Meier, the founder of Central Park East and Mission Hill School, recently told me that it is clear to her that we know how to provide a successful school experience for children. We only have to look towards the expensive, progressive private schools where there are small classes, art, music, dance, and play in a nurturing environment. That’s what all of our children need!
In a recent conversation with Beverly Falk, the topic of education and literacy came up, as it so often does, when we have telephone conversations. Beverly told me about an article that she wrote with Gil Schmerler. 
The room as we first found it.
Children covered the locker doors with their self-portraits. This was their room!
Last Saturday, I had an amazing “New York” day. My husband and I met my daughter and son-in-law at the 
In December, 2020 I posted a conversation with 
Every Tuesday evening I facilitate a zoom meeting of early childhood educators where we discuss a different chapter of my book, 
the leaves of other inquiry group leaves. They looked at their leaves on a light box and examined the veins by looking at them through the hole of a “detail finder”, a piece of paper with a small circular window cut into it. They went outside and studied the bark of their tree. 
had to experiment with paper so that they could figure out how to make trees that would stand up straight.
community garden, the site of their trees, would be the perfect spot.
helped them get their constructions completed. It was particularly exciting for the children to use real, adult tools and to work on constructions in groups under Zoltan’s guidance
